The present invention relates to an amplifier, and in particular, an amplifier capable of detecting the occurrence of clipping at a desired degree.
Conventionally, an amplifier is configured to prevent clipping due to excessive input by attenuating an input signal when detecting that an output voltage has exceeded a predetermined voltage value, for example, a power supply voltage value. Since an accurate judgment on whether clipping is actually occurring can not be made by the output voltage detection, a technique of reliably detecting the occurrence of clipping and attenuating an input signal is disclosed in Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. H10-163769.
The aforementioned technique focuses on preventing the occurrence of clipping, and thus is configured to detect clipping and attenuate an input signal as soon as clipping occurs or is likely to occur. However, such control is undesirable in some cases; when applied to an acoustic device, for example, attenuating action is so fast that a feeling of volume is lacking. In such a case, it is preferable that a feeling of volume is given a high priority and a certain degree of clipping is allowed.